IT Accessibility Committee September 2006 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

SEPTEMBER COMMITTEE MEETING

The September meeting of the IT Accessibility Committee will be held on Thursday, September 14, at the Forum offices at 411 State Street, Albany. Requests have been made to open up our meetings to conference call, and we will be piloting that option this month. If you are interested in participating the meeting via conference call, please e-mail Debi Orton (dorton@goer.state.ny.us) to be placed on the list for instructions.

Also, Denise Turner from the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities has reserved their conference site and has offered to accommodate others who can't make it to downtown Albany. You can contact Denise at Denise.Turner@omr.state.ny.us. Denise's location is Hudson Valley DDSO, 5 Wilbur Rd Thiells, N.Y.

Over the summer several members of the Committee and Paul Maguire from the Webmasters' Guild worked to define our requirements for a NYS-specific validation tool. At this month's meeting, we'll recap the work of the Requirements Workgroup and what our next steps are.

Two of our committee co-chairs also worked with OFT to make recommendations on changes to the accessibility policy and standards. We'll outline what those were, and ask for help in identifying changes needed to the Committee web site.

Finally, we'll ask for suggestions for programs and training classes we might present in the coming year, and as always, we'll take any feedback committee members might like to provide.

Legal Precedent Set for Web Accessibility
By SOURCE National Federation of the Blind

Federal Judge Sustains Discrimination Claims Against Target; Precedent Establishes That Retailers Must Make Their Websites Accessible to the Blind Under the ADA

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal district court judge ruled yesterday that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued in a case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp. (Northern District of California Case No. C 06-01802 MHP) The suit charges that Target's website (http://www.target.com (External Link)) is inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the California Disabled Persons Act. Target asked the court to dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its website accessible. The Court denied Target's motion to dismiss and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as target.com.

The suit, NFB v. Target, was filed as a class action on behalf of all blind Americans who are being denied access to target.com. The named plaintiffs are the NFB, the NFB of California, and a blind college student, Bruce "BJ" Sexton.

The plaintiffs are represented by Disability Rights Advocates (http://www.dralegal.org (External Link)), a Berkeley-based non-profit law firm that specializes in high-impact cases on behalf of people with disabilities; Brown, Goldstein & Levy (http://www.browngold.com (External Link)), a leading civil rights law firm in Baltimore, Maryland; and Schneider & Wallace (http://www.schneiderwallace.com (External Link)), a national plaintiff's class action and civil rights law firm based in San Francisco, CA.

The court held: "the 'ordinary meaning' of the ADA's prohibition against discrimination in the enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or privileges, is that whatever goods or services the place provides, it cannot discriminate on the basis of disability in providing enjoyment of those goods and services." The court thus rejected Target's argument that only its physical store locations were covered by the civil rights laws, ruling instead that all services provided by Target, including its Web site, must be accessible to persons with disabilities.

"This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the country," said NFB President Dr. Marc Maurer. "We are pleased that the court recognized that the blind are entitled to equal access to retail websites."

Dr. Maurer explained that blind persons access websites by using keyboards in conjunction with screen-reading software, which vocalizes visual information on a computer screen. Target's website contains significant access barriers that prevent blind customers from browsing among and purchasing products online, as well as from finding important corporate information such as employment opportunities, investor news, and company policies.

The plaintiffs charge that target.com fails to meet the minimum standard of web accessibility. It lacks compliant alt-text, an invisible code embedded beneath graphic images that allows screen readers to detect and vocalize a description of the image to a blind computer user. It also contains inaccessible image maps and other graphical features, preventing blind users from navigating and making use of all of the functions of the website. And because the website requires the use of a mouse to complete a transaction, blind Target customers are unable to make purchases on target.com independently.

The plaintiffs originally filed the complaint in Alameda superior court on February 7, 2006. The case was removed to federal district court and assigned to Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. Target responded to the suit by filing a motion to dismiss the case, which argued in part that no civil rights laws apply to the Internet.

"We tried to convince Target that it should do the right thing and make its website accessible through negotiations," said Dr. Maurer. "It is unfortunate that Target took the position that it does not have to take the rights of the blind into account. The ruling in this case puts Target and other companies on notice that the blind cannot be treated like second class citizens on the Internet or in any other sphere."

Explaining the ramification of the ruling, Mazen M. Basrawi, Equal Justice Works Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates, noted that: "the court clarified that the law requires that any place of public accommodation is required to ensure that it does not discriminate when it uses the internet as a means to enhance the services it offers at a physical location." "I hope that I can soon shop online at Target.com just like anyone else," said UC Berkeley student BJ Sexton, who is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit. "I believe that millions of blind people like me can use the Internet just as easily as do the sighted, if websites are accessible."

About the National Federation of the Blind

With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.

SOURCE National Federation of the Blind

Related links:
http://www.target.com (External Link)
http://www.dralegal.org (External Link)
http://www.browngold.com (External Link)
http://www.schneiderwallace.com (External Link)

Forum Award Recognize Projects with Committee Collaboration

On September 8, the Forum held its Annual Meeting at the Desmond Hotel. Among the projects honored with Best Practice awards were two in which the Committee collaborated: the Successful Web Communication in NYS Government training series, which won a best practice award in policy implementation; and CTG's XML Toolkit, which won an award for Best of the Web.

The Committee provided support for the XML Testbed, which helped to produce the XML Toolkit resource site.

And while we're bragging, a project involving Committee Co-chair Mike Short and our resident CSS expert, Jason Gleman, won a Best of the Web award for the redesign of the Department of Civil Service web site. The redesigned Civil Service site is a great example of increasing usability with a user-centered site design.

RESERVE THE DATE:

On Friday, December 1, we've arranged for Greg Pisocky, Adobe's Business Development Manager and Accessibility Specialist, to present on "Best Practices for Adobe Acrobat Documents" in a joint session of the Webmasters' Guild. We are looking into the possibility of presenting the session as a video conference to accommodate SUNY campuses statewide, where interest is high.

NEWS

**** September ****

From: Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - September 4, 2006

http://masshightech.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2006/09/04/story2.html (External Link)

Business News - Local News
On deadline, Mass. aims for IT access
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - September 1, 2006
by Catherine Williams
Mass High Tech

Joe Lazzaro is blind. Without accessibility technologies such as screen-reading software, Lazzaro couldn't do his job as the manager of assistive technology at the Massachusetts Information Technology Division.

Lazzaro's job is to ensure that 600,000 Bay State residents living with disabilities can access state systems that provide information ranging from taxes and vehicle registration to public notices.

Accessibility compliance has been called into question in the past year as the state continues its mandate to convert all of its systems to an OpenDocument standard, an open, vendor-neutral format for office applications, by Jan. 1, 2007.

"We want to bake accessibility right into the cake at the beginning, because without it there will be more delays," said Lazzaro. "It will cost more money. There will be less access and more frustration."

At the heart of Massachusetts' OpenDocument implementation is the compatibility of screen-reading and translational software technologies designed to interpret digital words and images into sounds or images for the disabled. State officials vow to meet both the accessibility requirements and the January deadline.

In an Aug. 23 letter, state Chief Information Officer Louis Gutierrez outlined the state's plans to use an OpenDocument translator plug-in to translate Microsoft Office documents in use by the state's 50,000 desktops, rather than going to a wholesale adoption of an OpenDocument office suite. Three plug-ins are being tested for compatibility with accessibility technologies. The solution, an 11-second install, would keep the state from converting to an OpenDocument office software package, such as Sun Microsystems Inc.'s StarOffice.

Accessibility is the department's "first priority" said Gutierrez in the letter. Rather than wait on compatibility of accessibility technologies with OpenDocument suites, the Information Technology Division decided to use plug-ins to meet the January deadline.

In 2005, the state's technology division set a self-imposed time to transition to storing state records in OpenDocument format. At first, state officials -- including former CIO Peter Quinn, who departed in January -- suggested the state would transition to open-source office software suites, such as OpenOffice or IBM Corp.'s Workplace. Using a plug-in would forestall those efforts for now and help the state meet a phased-in implementation of OpenDocument technologies well into next year.

Massachusetts is leading the charge in addressing OpenDocument formats and accessibility, says Douglas Johnson, standards program manager at Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun supports the state's OpenDocument efforts, which will drive compatibility-technology development for accessibility technologies and increase innovation, says Johnson.

"Massachusetts is really the canary in the mine with this stuff. Whether others will emulate them, that is another question," said Johnson.

Lazzaro says the accessibility testing lab he is in charge of will eventually have a staff of four. He hopes their efforts will "raise the bar" on accessibility of all software purchased by the state.

Open access

Accessibility technologies range from mouse-clicks that can be controlled by the head for quadriplegics to software designed to translate visual images from web sites into words for the blind. These technologies can also drive a computer based on verbal commands or breath.

In New England, there are several companies that specialize in this technology, including Westford-based Duxbury Systems Inc., which develops Braille translation software. Nuance Communications Inc., based in Burlington, specializes in speech-recognition software that translates spoken words into written language.

There are 37,922 persons in Massachusetts who are legally blind and an estimated 546,022 who are deaf or hard of hearing, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. There are 1 million disabled people living in Massachusetts and 2.5 million throughout New England.

A 2004 national survey of disabled people revealed 36 percent used assistive technologies such as Braille note takers and voice recognition, according Nancy Starnes, the vice president of the National Organization on Disability. An estimated 54 million people in the United States are disabled.

Owen P. Doonan III, who is the chairman of the Massachusetts Statewide Taskforce on Home Based and Self Employment for people with disabilities, says the move is an indication that the state recognizes the problem.

"The good thing about this whole thing is that it got the state to re-address these issues. Now they are meeting their commitment to the voters," said Doonan.

Doonan has worked on accessibility issues since 1996, after a disability forced him to work virtually from home. He served on the Massachusetts State Rehabilitation Council and has been an IT professional for 20 years.

Lazzaro became blind at the age of 15. Since then, he has written three books on descriptive technology and worked for 25 years to make technology accessible for people with disabilities.

"These problems are easily fixed -- it just takes the will to do it," said Lazzaro. "Technology has really changed my life."

Microsoft Expression Web (beta)
REVIEW DATE: 09.05.06
BOTTOM LINE:

For knowledgeable Web authors, this beta looks like it's going to be the best editor out there--but without the beginner-style handholding offered by FrontPage.

PROS:
Up-to-date standards-based web editor with drag-and-drop XML support built in. Interface similar enough to FrontPage that you'll need minimal retraining. Efficient use of Cascading Style Sheets for sleek, compatible coding.

CONS:
Somewhat steep learning curve for full use of database, RSS, and advanced features. No built-in support for automated validation of PHP pages.

COMPANY:
Microsoft Corporation

EDITOR RATING:

By Edward Mendelson

Microsoft has proclaimed: FrontPage is dead, long live (or long run) Microsoft Expression Web, a new standards-based Web-editor that's part of the Microsoft Expression suite, together with Expression Graphic (for graphic design) and Expression Interactive (for app design). A public beta is now downloadable at www.microsoft.com/products/expression (External Link) (or it should be soon). The beta still shows the product's earlier name, "Expression Web Designer," but the shipping version will be named Expression Web, according to Microsoft. Pricing for the new app hasn't been determined, but you can get your hands on the beta for free.

For the FULL ARTICLE, see <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2012364,00.asp (External Link)>

**** August ****

Firefox 2.0 Now To Ship In Late October

By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb Tue Aug 15, 12:45 PM ET

Mozilla Corp. on Monday pushed back the release date of Firefox 2.0 yet again, with a scheduled ship for mid-to-late October.

According to the minutes of Mozilla's weekly progress meetings, there are approximately 40 bugs in the under-construction Firefox 2.0 Beta 2, and about 100 that need to be addressed before the final goes out the door.

Firefox 2.0 debuted as a developers-eyes'-only Beta 1 a month ago. Version 2.0, which will compete against Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 when that browser rolls out later this year, boasts an in-line spell checker, anti-phishing alerts, and a restore-after-crash feature, other improvements include enhancements to its tabs, news feeds, and extension add-ons.

Mozilla's Firefox release calendar now pegs Aug. 23 as the ship date for Beta 2, with Release Candidate 1 (RC1) due Sept. 19. At the moment, the final is slated to post for downloading on Oct. 24.

The company was upfront about the cause of the delays. "[The] slip [is] due to number of outstanding blocker [bugs] in several areas," the minutes read.

In the meantime, the release of Firefox 1.5.0.7 -- the next security update for the current production version of the browser -- has been moved up to the first week of September. "Due to Firefox 2.0 slip, we have decided to shorten the 1.5.0.7 release cycle to get it out before we reach release time for 2.0," Mozilla said.

The current 1.5.0.6 version of Firefox can be downloaded for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X from here.

RESOURCES

The following resource articles are included here with the permission of The Northeast ADA & IT Center at Cornell University

"Providing Alternate Format Textbooks in Higher Education: The Publisher Look-up Service"

The Publisher Look-Up Service, A New Textbook Database Offering From The Association of American Publishers (AAP): This online database provides a new resource to help college and university Disability Support Services (DSS) professionals find the appropriate contacts at publishing houses from whom to request electronic formats of textbooks, and/or scanning permissions, to facilitate the DSS office's provision of alternate format instructional materials to students with print disabilities.

The Publisher Look-Up Service, www.PublisherLookup.org (External Link), is a Web site interface that (AAP launched in mid-August. Read the http://www.publishers.org/press/releases.cfm?PressReleaseArticleID=338 (External Link) AAPs press release announcing this service for more information.

"CommonLook: Tool for evaluating the accessibility of PDF files"

NetCentric Technologies (www.net-centric.com (External Link)) has developed a unique tool, called CommonLook (www.commonlook.com/pdf (External Link)). CommonLook makes it possible to visually examine and repair a PDF document's logical structure and to check it against all the federal Government section 508 standards related to 1194.22 (Web-based intranet and internet information and applications). It highlights any compliance problems and helps authors and testers repair them by providing a simple drag-and-drop graphical interface. By simplifying the problem of repairing PDF structure issues, it becomes possible to deal effectively with complex documents containing tables, forms and multi-column documents.

"Functional Accessibility Evaluator"

Developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, the Functional Accessibility Evaluator is a free, open source tool that analyzes web resources for markup that is consistent with the use of DRES/CITES HTML best practices for development of functionally accessible web resources and resources that support interoperability. The HTML best practices are not a new standard, but rather a statement of techniques for implementation of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and United States Federal Government Section 508 standards that not only improve accessibility for people with disabilities, but also the inter-operability of web resources for everyone so all people benefit by having more options to access and use web resources.

For more information, visit http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu/about.php (External Link).